La casa de enfrente: Ernestina de Champourcin‘s Contribution
to the Genre of Female Bildungsroman in Spain
Olga Bezhanova
Cornell University
Ernestina
de Champourcin‘s only published novel La casa de enfrente (1936) has
received scarce attention from the scholars of literature. One of the reasons behind this critical
neglect is the fact that the novel came out less than two months before the beginning of the Civil
War. Even though the initial reaction to La casa de enfrente seems to have been favorable
(Landeira 32-3), the tragic events of the war, as well as Champourcin‘s exile, plunged the novel
into oblivion. At the same time, we are accustumed of seeing Champourcin as a poet, while her
contribution to the novelistic genre remains forgotten. In 1975, during her first interview given
after returning to Spain, Champourcin describes La casa de enfrente as ―error de la juventud‖
(Villar, ―Ernestina de Champourcin,‖ 13). The few critics who discuss La casa de enfrente share
the author‘s lack of enthusiasm for the novel. Hanley believes that the novel‘s only relevance
resides in its capacity to clarify some aspects of Champourcin‘s development as a poet (146-7).
Landeira refers to the work as immature and adolescent (33). Villar concludes that La casa de
enfrente makes no significant contribution to the development of the novelistic genre (La poesía
18). In my opinion, however, the lack of critical interest towards the novel should be attributed
not so much to its defects, as to the difficulty of placing it within a certain genre¹. I propose to
read La casa de enfrente as a Bildungsroman. This kind of reading allows for a greater
appreciation of the novel. Some of its aspects that might seem confusing at first glance become
clearer if we analyze La casa de enfrente as part of this genre. At the same time, discussing
Champourcin‘s novel as a female novel of formation will enrich our understanding of the
trajectory of the Bildungsroman genre in Spain.
Few attempts have been made so far to read La casa de enfrente as a novel of formation.
The development of the genre of female Bildungsroman and its critical reception in Spain were,
for a long time, influenced by the profound inequality in the position of women in Spanish
society. In literary criticism, female Bildungsromane were marginalized for two reasons. On the
one hand, works of literature written by women were considered less important than those
produced by men (Campal Fernández 264). On the other hand, female authors who ventured into
a genre that was traditionally considered masculine exposed themselves to the risk of being
marginalized precisely because they explored the genre of Bildungsroman (Nichols 262). Until
recently, critical studies of Bildungsroman were limited to the exploration of male novels of
formation (Rodríguez 5).
While most critics are eager to classify many novels written by women in the last few
decades of the twentieth century as Bildungsromane, this has not always been the case for the
earlier female novels of formation. The reason for this lies in the contrast between male and
female Bildung. This dissimilarity is conditioned by the profound differences between the place
that society historically reserved for men and for women: ―Heroines who did attempt an identity
29
of self were generally halted before they could complete the journey to selfhood, thus militating
against their designation as Bildungsroman heroines‖ (Labovitz 5). As a novel that provided the
model for the future development of the genre, Goethe‘s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre establishes
a pattern of the protagonist‘s search for personhood that was inaccessible for nineteenth-century
female characters (Lokke 137). Since traditional female Bildungsromane of the nineteenth and
the early twentieth centuries do not conform to the model suggested by Goethe‘s novel, critics
tend to resist the inclusion of these novels into the genre. Moreover, well into the twentieth
century, female authors of Bildungsromane ran the risk of being excluded from the literary canon
for experimenting with a genre that, by definition, was considered to be exclusively masculine.
For example, Nichols points out that this is one of the reasons that initially hindered critical
acceptance of Mercè Rodoreda‘s La plaça del Diamant (262). Today, a growing number of
female novels of development are finally gaining inclusion into the genre. Champourcin‘s La
casa de enfrente deserves to be one of them.
Seen as part of the genre of female Bildungsroman in Spain, La casa de enfrente
possesses some of the characteristics of the traditional nineteenth and early twentieth century
female novel of formation. The circularity of the narrative structure, the peculiarities of the
narrative voice, and the failure of the protagonist‘s Bildung distinguish these novels. In many
ways, La casa de enfrente continues the tradition of female Bildungsroman established by such
works as Biedma‘s La boda de la niña (1885), Sinués de Marco‘s La vida íntima (1876),
Sánchez Cantos‘s Para ellas (1896), Espina‘s La rosa de los vientos (1915), and others.
At the same time, Champourcin‘s novel does not simply follow the pattern of the
traditional female novel of formation. It introduces some of the themes and narrative techniques
that characterize later Bildungsromane: fragmented narrative, the resistance to growth, selfcastigation, and the desire to obey. These elements appear in recent novels of female
development, such as Grandes‘s Las edades de Lulú (1989), Freire‘s Irlanda (1998), and
Etxebarria‘s Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes (1998). In this sense, La casa de enfrente represents a
transitional point within the history of development of female Bildungsroman in Spain.
Circularity of the narrative structure has been one of the defining characteristics of
female Bildungsroman from the moment of its inception (Ferguson 228, Hirsch 26). Unlike the
traditional male novels of formation, female Bildungsromane do not develop in a linear fashion.
Female protagonists often discover that society expects them to infantilize themselves in order to
be accepted. As a result, they frustrate their development and revert to childish modes of
behavior. The circular structure of female novels of formation reflects this process of ―‘growing
down‘ rather than ‗growing up‘‖ (Pratt 14). At the beginning of La casa de enfrente, the firstperson narrator promises to bare her entire soul before the eyes of the male addressee of her story
(10). The novel ends with a similar act. In order to prove her love to Arturo, the protagonist
offers him her naked body (272-3). Elena does not seem to have grown much between these
moments. She still believes that being an object of the male gaze is the highest achievement
available to her. Like the protagonists of many traditional female Bildungsromane, she conducts
and describes her development in a circular fashion.
For Landeira, this resolution of the novel disqualifies La casa de enfrente as a
Bildungsroman: ―El esperado aspecto edificador del bildung que debe llegar a la madurez del
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personaje principal solo implica una maduración sexual sin asegurarnos que haya una
maduración completa de la protagonist‖ (129-30). While this characteristic would, in fact,
problematize the novel‘s inclusion within the genre of male Bildungsroman, it places
Champourcin‘s novel squarely within the tradition of female novel of formation. Failure of the
protagonist‘s Bildungsprozeβ has been one of the most salient features of the genre from the
moment of its inception. Trilling states that ―the history of heroine-ism would seem to be an
endlessly reiterated story of failure‖ (503). Bellamy points out that this characteristic is shared by
most female Bildungsromane: ―Before the 1970s . . . female Bildungsromane were not so much
stories of struggle and triumph as they were stories of frustration and defeat – paradoxically they
were stories of the failure of development‖ (1). Elena‘s story is one more among these narratives
of frustrated development and a tragic failure to grow.
Instead of progressing in her development, as a protagonist of a male Bildungsroman
would be expected to do, Elena regresses. A precocious child with no fear of expressing her
opinions transforms into a young woman who prefers neither to know nor to speak: ―Ahora estas
frases desaparecieron ante el ademán de expectación con que respondo a todas las preguntas y a
todos los problemas. Ni quiero saber ni quiero decir nada. ¿Para qué? Mis afirmaciones infantiles
ceden el paso a una niebla gris y vacilante‖ (58). This change in Elena is a result of her fear of
growing up different from other women (59). She sees marriage as the only destiny that is
acceptable for a person of her gender. Preparing for this eventuality becomes the single task of
her development: ―Empecé a hablar de mi matrimonio como de algo seguro, que fatalmente tenía
que ocurrir. El menor de mis deseos veía postergada su realización para cuando yo me casara, y
en torno a este acontecimiento future acumulé todas las posibilidades de mi vida‖ (57-8). Many
of the classic female Bildungsromane of the nineteenth century share this view of marriage as the
only suitable resolution for female formation².
Elena‘s narrative voice is highly lyrical. She concentrates on exploring the emotions that
accompany each stage of her development. Unlike a protagonist of a traditional male novel of
formation, she focuses on feeling rather than acting. Elena‘s attention to the minute details of her
emotional growth has led some critics to qualify her story as ―el relato rosado y romántico‖
(Landeira 133). Barbero Reviejo attributes the novel‘s highly subjective tone to Champourcin‘s
poetic vocation (75). We have to remember, however, that this is yet another defining
characteristic of the traditional female Bildungsroman:
Because the conventional assumptions of the novel as narrative form share in a dominant
sexual ideology, they act to limit the possibilities for novels that explore women‘s full
humanity. Women‘s actions are few because when women act they lose novelistic
plausibility as women. Women‘s plots are nearly always ―familial‖ or ―erotic‖ because our
cultural notions of womanhood require a personal context. (Frye 5)
Elena believes that the highest form of achievement available to her belongs to the realm of her
emotional development. She experiences profound satisfaction when she realizes that Arturo is
incapable of feelings as profound as her own: ―Su amor no puede volver a encontrarme, no
puede igualar el mío; escalé queriéndole la cumber más solitaria, y los que llegan a ella nunca
logran salvarse‖ (277). In what concerns emotions, Arturo has become inferior to Elena. Critics
tend to place little value on this kind of accomplishment because of the expectations produced by
31
the readings of male Bildungsromane. For the protagonist of Champourcin‘s novel, however, this
is the only area where she can excel without being condemned by society for her achievement.
Villar suggests that La casa de enfrente follows all of the conventions of nineteenthcentury novels: ―Sigue el esquema de la narraciones decimonónicas, sin ningún contagio con los
experimentos vanguardistas entonces imperantes. . . Hay que decir que es una buena novela
anticuada para su época de publicación‖ (La poesía 18). While it is true that avant-garde
experimentation is absent from the novel, it does represent a significant step forward in its
capacity as a female Bildungsroman. La casa de enfrente does not limit itself to exploring the
narrative techniques and the thematic interests of the traditional female novel of formation. It
introduces some of the topics and narrative mechanisms that will come to dominate
contemporary female Bildungsromane at the end of the twentieth century. One of these themes is
the protagonist‘s active resistance to growth. If the characters of the traditional female novels of
formation fail to progress because of societal pressures, the heroines of more recent
Bildungsromane make a conscious choice to frustrate their own development. In Espina‘s La
rosa de los vientos (1915), for example, Soledad Fontenebro condemns her mother for failing to
grow and remaining ―una criatura infantil‖ (260). Later female Bildungsromane, however,
present us with protagonists whose goal is to retain their childhood as long as possible.
This tendency becomes visible in mid-century Bildungsromane and culminates in the
female novels of development of the past two decades. In Matute‘s Primera memoria (1960),
Matia repeatedly talks of her fear of adulthood: ―Yo estaba a punto de crecer y de convertirme en
una mujer. O lo era ya, acaso. Sentí las manos frías, en medio del calor. ‗No, no, que esperen un
poco más . . . un poco más‘‖ (128). The protagonist of Freire‘s Irlanda, published almost forty
years after Primera memoria, voices a similar attitude to growth: ―Yo preferiría no crecer –
musité‖ (44). Grandes‘s Lulú goes to great lengths to preserve her image as a little girl well into
her thirties: ―Aquello era demasiado duro, insoportablemente duro para las escasas fuerzas de
una niña pequeña, soy una niña pequeña, concluí‖ (Las edades de Lulú 255). In a similar way,
the protagonist of Etxebarria‘s Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes dreams of becoming an eternal
adolescent (36).
Champourcin‘s Elena is as afraid of the inexorable passage of time that will transform her
into an adult as are Matute‘s Matia, Freire‘s Natalia, Etxebarria‘s Beatriz, and Grandes‘s Lulú.
Her fear of growth leads Elena to dream of ceasing to exist altogether: ―Dejar de ser, no sentirse
vivir, no vibrar de impaciencia ante el tiempo que corre, defraudándonos, trayéndonos tan sólo la
agonía de la espera‖ (147). Elena sees blind obedience to the will of others as an only solution to
the anxiety of growth: ―Mi conducta consistía en no conducirme, en dejarme llevar por el
mecanismo fácil del reglamento, entregándome sin resistencia a la presión de una atmósfera
sedante donde hasta las emociones se preveían de antemano‖ (109), ―aquel total abandono a una
voluntad desconocida me sumía en tal éxtasis que hubiera dado cualquier cosa por no
interrumpirlo, por no sentirme libre jamás‖ (241). In a highly symbolic gesture, Elena ties her
own feet in order to demonstrate her obedience to the Church (136). Later on, she submits herself
unconditionally to the man she loves (252). Freedom to act and to think is a burden that
Champourcin‘s character is not prepared to accept.
32
The concept of obedience is equally important to the protagonists of many contemporary
female Bildungsromane. Matute‘s Matia conducts her Bildung in a way very similar to Elena‘s.
She is as obssessed with the idea of obedience as the protagonist of La casa de enfrente: ―Algo
había que me impedía obrar, pensar por mí misma. Obedecer a Borja, desobedecer a la abuela:
ésa era mi única preocupación, por entonces‖ (51-2). Freire‘s Natalia also talks about the
pleasure of obedience (39). The protagonist of Montero‘s Bella y oscura (1993) echoes Elena‘s
desire to comply with the rules imposed on her by others: ―Yo estaba dispuesta a cumplir todas
las reglas . . . a ser humilde y obediente‖ (172). For these characters of contemporary female
novels of formation, obedience represents one of the central concepts that organize their Bildung.
Champourcin‘s novel is one of the first female Bildungsromane that highlights the centrality of
obedience as a conscious choice for the process of female formation.
The fear of growth and the emphasis on obedience that characterize the development of
the protagonists of female Bildungsromane coincide with historical changes in the position of
women in society. These characters face a growing number of opportunities in a world where no
one has prepared them to act as adults. Fear of growth and the desire to obey manifest
themselves during the moments of important transformations in gender roles and expectations.
The new Republican Constitution that was accepted on December 9, 1931 guaranteed the women
of Spain a right to vote. This important measure, however, did not produce an overnight change
in the society‘s attitude towards women:
La polémica sobre el trabajo asalariado de las mujeres se difunde durante los años de la II
República. . . La posición dominante es la de mostrarse contrarios a que las mujeres
desempeñen una actividad remunerada fuera del hogar, especialmente si se trataba de
mujeres casadas. Políticos, médicos, teólogos coinciden en afirmar que existe una rígida
división de tareas entre hombres y mujeres y consideran el trabajo extradoméstico como
algo que desnaturaliza la única misión para la que las mujeres están dotadas. (Folguera
Crespo 506)
The protagonist of La casa de enfrente has to conduct her Bildungsprozeβ in this
environment of change and in the midst of polemics as to the woman‘s place in society. Elena‘s
strict Catholic upbringing comes into conflict with a desire for sexual freedom and her hopes of
becoming an artist. She fears that simply talking about art might disqualify her as a woman
(161). It is no surprise that Elena searches for support: ―Para hacer algo tengo que sentirme
apoyada en alguien responsable que sepa más que yo‖ (185). She needs this kind of guidance
because society no longer offers her a clear vision of what it means to be a woman in the
changing world.
In many ways, Elena‘s process of development is similar to that of the protagonist of
Grandes‘s Bildungsroman Las edades de Lulú. Like Elena, Lulú grows up in the time of great
political upheaval. Born in 1958 into a very traditional family, she receives an education that is
wholly in keeping with the ideology of Franco‘s Spain. The country‘s transition to democracy
brought great changes to the position of women in society. The decade of the 1980s, during
which Lulú reaches maturity, witnessed the introduction of an impressive number of new laws
aimed at promoting gender equality. Both Lulú and Elena are confused by the new gender roles
they have to learn to accept. Obedience and desire to abdicate responsibility for their choices is
33
one of the ways in which the protagonists of contemporary female novels of formation react to
these societal transformations.
This attitude of confusion in the face of changing political and social realities, which is
shared by the protagonists of La casa de enfrente and Las edades de Lulú, finds its reflection in
the narrative structure of both novels. Unlike traditional nineteenth-century Bildungsromane,
these novels do not follow the chronological progression of time. The first-person narrators of
both novels analyze their formative experiences by moving from the present to the past. The
narrative that they produce as a result is often fragmented and vacillating. Elena begins her
reminiscences with ―una serie de imágenes sueltas‖ (21) and later on offers the readers the diary
entries she wrote some time ago. In a similar way, Lulú builds her account around memorable
events from her past and shifts constantly between past and present experiences. It falls to the
reader to organize these images and episodes from Elena‘s and Lulú‘s lives into a coherent story.
The breaks in the narrative flow of these novels and the narrators‘ insistence on constantly
reevaluating their past experiences mimic the fear of linear progression that characterizes their
Bildungsprozeβ.
The protagonists of contemporary female Bildungsromane often experience frustration
with having to elaborate entirely new ways of being female in a changing world. They frequently
channel their frustrations into violence against themselves or others. Elena‘s fantasies of selfmutilation dominate her Bildungsprozeβ for years: ―De noche, entre tinieblas, sentía que las
puntas amenazadoras rozaban mis párpados. Un deseo loco de clavarlas en mis pupilas me hizo
estremecer, colmándome de voluptuosidad. . . Este apetito de sensaciones dolorosas fue
creciendo con tal ímpetu que aún a veces me cuesta trabajo dominarlas‖ (113-4). The
preoccupation with violence is as important to the female Bildungsromane of the last two
decades. Chelo, one of the characters of Las edades de Lulú, draws similar enjoyment from being
a victim of violence (83-4). Violence is also central to Freire‘s Irlanda, whose protagonist directs
it at the people around her.
Bildungsroman is a genre that concentrates on depicting the protagonist‘s search for
maturity and individuation as a member of society. In this capacity, it is especially sensitive to
the modifications within accepted gender roles. In the course of the twentieth century, the
women of Spain experienced many changes in their position in society. Female novel of
formation could not fail to adapt to these transformations. As a result, the genre has gone through
several significant stages of development. Contemporary Bildungsromane differ greatly from the
traditional model suggested by Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and other nineteenth-century novels
of development. Frequently, these differences prevent critics from seeing many contemporary
novels of formation as Bildungsromane. In order to understand what the genre has become today,
we need to analyze the female Bildungsromane that constituted a transitional stage between the
traditional and the contemporary novels of development. A reading of Champourcin‘s La casa de
enfrente as a female Bildungsroman allows us an invaluable experience of observing such a
moment of transition between early conventions of the genre and its present-day techniques and
thematic concerns. Today we know Ernestina de Champourcin as a gifted poet, the only
recognized female representative of the Generation of 27. The time has finally come to
acknowledge the importance of Champourcin‘s only published novel and its contribution to the
development of the genre of female Bildungsroman in Spain.
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Notes
(1)In one of the first reviews of the novel, Otis H. Green refers to La casa de enfrente as ―a
diary and a general confession‖ (493). Ródenas de Moya characterizes it as ―narrativa lírica‖
(23). Landeira states that ―su tema y tono tienden hacia la novela rosa‖ (123).
(2) Loto, the protagonist of Biedma‘s Bildungsroman La boda de la niña, sees her future as
―consagrada a sus hijos y a su familia, como si esa fuese su única misión en la tierra‖ (453).
Eufemia, the main character of Sinués de Marco‘s La vida íntima, shares this attitude: ―Pasar la
vida al lado del hombre a quien se ama . . . debe ser el bello ideal de la felicidad‖ (69-70).
Sánchez Cantos de Escobar voices a similar point of view in Para ellas: ―Hasta que la mujer se
convenza de que su principal misión es la de amar y hacer comprender al hombre los puros goces
del hogar doméstico, no será feliz‖ (32).
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37